In the current information age, there are often discussions of the desirableness of a paperless society. However, notwithstanding such discussions, there remains a great need by users of computers and other information terminals (that is, any of the various conventional devices which have a need to print on demand, such as personal computers, notebook computers, workstations, other types of computers, kiosks, PDAs, other information appliances, etc.) for printing functionality. Therefore, devices having printing or plotting functionality, such as printers, copiers, multi-function devices, etc., continue to play a significant role in information technology (IT) at home and at work. The terms “printer” and “printing device” are used hereinafter generically to include any output device having a printing or plotting functionality, and include multi-function devices having a copy and/or scanning functionality in addition to the printing or plotting functionality.
Information, transmitted or stored in an electronic form, is often in a multi-media form, in order to facilitate presentation. In the case of images (for example, video, graphics, etc.), with or without text, such images are often transmitted or stored in the form of color image data. When such image is printed, it is generally desirable to print the image as a color image. However, in many instances, the cost of color printing is higher than the cost of black-and-white printing, and/or color printing resources are less available than black-and-white printing resources.
While some organizations charge each user (or a department within the organization of the user) for use of IT (information technology) resources, such as a per-page or per-job printing charge, the user may or may not be aware generally of such charges. In any event, any such general awareness, by itself, would unlikely lead the user to consider such costs before using color printing resources. In the interest of optimal use of color printing resources and cost containment, it is desirable to resort to color printing only when color image output is cost efficient.
There is a need for techniques for presenting cost information to a user before the user prints an image as a color image.